I want you to image a conference where a bunch of artists present their concepts for future artificial hearts. That's too stupid to even contemplate, right? What an artist thinks an artificial heart should look like has nothing to do with reality.

This is exactly the same. They asked a bunch of artists, that very obviously know nothing about vehicles that might operate on the moon, to draw some pretty pictures based off the bad sci-fi they have seen throughout their life.

Who cares what these artists think a moon vehicle should look like? That's as pointless as asking a musician how they think a nuclear engine should sound. You would literally be better off going to a sci-fi convention and browsing the art section. You'd like find more interesting, original, and correct ideas on lunar vehicles there, then at this stupid event.

Seriously, this is like having a medical convention and inviting artists to present their stupid ideas on replacement organs, instead of doctors, researchers, and people who actually make replacement organs.

As an engineer, I find these stupid events (and events like this) deeply annoying. If they want to have a sci-fi art show, that's fine, just don't pretend like it is an engineering event. If it is an event to show off lunar vehicle concepts, rather than cool sci-fi pictures, they actually need the bulk of the work done by actual engineers. It's fine to have an artist on the team to make everything look pretty, but my brain hurts from the stupidity of it just being a team of artist.

You wouldn't have artists replace doctors. It doesn't work any better when you have artists replace engineers.

We put an engineer in charge of Boeing, we got the MAX. Just saying.

Edit: I’m not an engineer but I appreciate their POV. However, my Boeing comment is just that. Engineers screwup, and sometimes it’s engineers that are the most closed minded in taking outside input into consideration than anyone else. Because they’re sure they know better. You only have to look at the myriad of disasters like the shuttle disaster to know that I am right. Downvote me all you want but it doesn’t change this reality.

Putting artist in charge would not have resulted in better results. It would have resulted in airplanes that do not fly, which uh, I guess are technically safer. You can't crash something that can't fly.

And if we are going to be pedantic, engineers were NOT in charge of that decision. Engineers pointed out the flaw and proposed solutions. Money men decided it wasn't worth the time and money to fix it.

This could be a pretty cool idea but it was executed horribly. Concept cars are about exploring what might be possible in the future. They are often unrealistic and aren't yet viable but they are somewhat grounded in reality. Nobody comes out with a concept car which relies on anti-grav or is designed to never drive and just teleport directly to the destination. It would defeat the whole purpose of a concept car.

Real lunar concept vehicles should likewise be ground in reality. Any project which is more than lets make some random stuff that is useless but cool looking should look at the new environment. With new capabilities does the moon bring? What new challenges does it bring? That serves as the basis for new concepts. How would a new concept take advantage of those capabilities and overcome those challenges in a functional way.

The Lexus lunar concepts are magic which is very boring.

Let me get this straight: normal concept cars that never ever get made: good. Space concept cars that never ever get made: bad!

You had to intentionally ignore what I wrote to get that idea. Concepts divorced from reality are boring. Nobody said it had to actually be made. Nobody said it had to look ugly. I didn't dispearage artists in general. I never said engineers should have designed these. I said making streamlined antigrav magical bullshit is boring.

Here are some conceptual Martian rovers that are interesting because they are at least somewhat based in reality.

Is anyone going to build these? No. Are there likely a whole host of technical issues which would prevent any of them from actually being built and used as is? Of course. They are however somewhat based in reality and thus are an interesting take on what future Martian crewed vehicles MIGHT look like. The Lexus magic fantasy art isn't.

honestly due to low g and dust environment, walking rovers might be interesting on Luna, joints with partial rotation are easier to seal from the environment than axles, and legs can get more traction and leverage in some situations,